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FANTASY BOB'S CASUAL OBSERVATIONS ON CARLTON, CRICKET, LIFE AND ALL THAT OTHER STUFF

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

A trivia question

Fantasy Bob's recent reference to the excellent Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain got him thinking about what the link is between cricket and the ukelele? An interesting trivia question.

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Ukelele Ike

The answer is that America singer Cliff Edwards nicknamed Ukelele Ike was the voice for Jiminy Cricket in Pinnochio. His is the voice on When you Wish Upon a Star. He also voiced the head crow and sang When I See an Elephant Fly in Dumbo.

Edwards popularised the ukelele in the 1920s and had a string of hits including I Can't Give You Anything But Love, and Singin' in the Rain (which Gene Kelly revived many years later). He worked with Buster Keaton on the film Doughboys and a number of other movies. He had his own radio and TV shows but drink and drugs problems meant that he faded from public view and he died in obscurity in 1971 at the age of 76. It is unlikely that he ever played cricket.

Nor did Jiminy Cricket, although he did give sound advice to batsmen who have just nicked it and look up at the umpire. 'Always let your conscience be your guide..........'

Readers might feel cheated at this question and say - 'Well we'd have got the answer if you said cricket as in Pinnochio's conscience but we thought you meant cricket as in cricket.' Fantasy Bob doesn't think that there is any other link between cricket and the ukelele so he thinks you could have got to the answer pretty quickly. But he confesses that this was just a ruse to refer to his own adventures on the ukelele - his version of Sloop John B and other classics have made strong men weep. Having referred to it, he passes on to other things.